Wild geese flew overhead all along my trip. I must go where the wild goose goes….

Sweet Thursday was one of those life changing books for me (like Siddhartha) I read repeatedly in High School, and still revisit occasionally. Once I got into Steinbeck’s life, I figured out why. Steinbeck himself was going through MAJOR life changes when he wrote the book, his best friend Ed Ricketts had just been killed, and the grief was so overwhelming, Steinbeck crawled into a small house on the Monterey peninsula, and worked through it all by writing a sequel to Cannery Row.

His most mysterious (and to me the best) character, the Seer, appears in this book. Steinbeck does that, he shifts his characters around like Greek drama, their masks change, and behind the mask there is a real person. The Doc meets the Seer out on the dunes one evening, and they find "a hole in Reality through which you can look if you wish". But in that small scene, it is really Steinbeck wearing the mask of the Doc, and it’s John Muir playing himself, 100 years later and a few score miles to the West of Yosemite. You have to read the books to understand, but I finally found out who the Seer is. One day I really do have to make it back to Yosemite. One day.

About a week prior to Spring Break, I read this incredible article in Smithsonian about John Muir. I’d heard his name for years but never really understood what he was about. The article tied together several themes for me, the first being Yosemite of course. Back in the early 60’s when I was still fairly small, my family did an outing to Yosemite, that was back in the days when it was mostly a place for Los Angeles and San Francisco people to "get away", not a spot for "green people" all over the world to treat as a Mecca. Even so it was very crowded, and I remember sitting in a very hot old ‘58 Fairlane in a long line waiting to go through the famous Tunnel Tree. Said Tunnel Tree has long since fallen over (one winter when the park was closed), and if there is a tunnel tree in the park now, it’s a "restored" attraction, not the original.

But that childhood journey is a fond memory indeed; somehow the pine trees smell fresher and cleaner up there. We kids had never seen forests like that, and my parents somehow drove up into the remote portion of the park, up high at White Wolf Lodge. We went to a Ranger Talk, and learned about the Fire Falls (do they still do those?) we didn’t get to see those tho, bummer. I know it was real dark, and we staggered back to the car with no flashlight, my parents clutching their brood of three (Dad‘s an Eagle Scout, we managed). As we followed the Ranger out, we got a thrill! He flashed his lights at a real live HUGE brown bear, digging in trash cans! Man we rolled up the windows! That night we slept soundly in the old, quaint lodge (painted cheezy pink and blue I remember) in the morning the Ranger said the same bear had returned and was scratching at the kitchen door! YIKE! He showed us the bear traps and said he was going to have to relocate that bear. Getting too bold! (I think the Ranger was glad no one had gotten hurt or broken into in the night, too).

Anyway the original White Wolf Lodge burned down some years ago. This trip I seriously considered going through Yosemite on my way to Oakland, but upon researching, found that White Wolf isn’t even open until June 21 (and reservations are recommended some months in advance!) so that got scratched off my list. I love the snow, but I don’t dig SIERRA snow, and I know better. Sierra weather can turn on a dime. It’s up the Central Valley for me on the Moody day off from tour.

I really have to get out of this desert before I take too many rads! Off down the incline to Barstow, thence to Bakersfield, following the numbered highways. Thankfully I go into a timeless paralysis when driving, it’s hypnotic. It’s like meditation, gazing at the desert scenery. I was through Bakersfield and up 99 in no time. I HATE 99. The road is old, bumpy and gnarly. But I was headed to visit with an old friend from the Navy, Pete. Oddly he had just emailed me a few days before I took off, so it worked out fine. I spent a nice afternoon visiting with his wife Dallas, and all his rescue dogs (they had a whole yard full of kennels! Many dogs who had been dumped off in the boonies near their house). They lived way out from Fresno, and said they were surrounded by empty homes, many foreclosed (sorta scary). Anyway they had three Jack Russells, and they were all a kick, one little dog whose eyes were gone (but he could smell and hear and got around very well!). Pete is a lawyer now, and doing well apparently. It was nice to see him settled down, he’s one of the good guys.

Pete found me on line by googling my name, and "Moody Blues" so that ought to scare me actually. He said that the radio even unto Fresno had been advertising the Moody shows, so I guess the MB promotion department is good for something after all.

Thence up the road to Turlock, then to a place I like called Villa del Lago. I did a "crash and burn", packed it in there, slept well. (for a change. 10 hours). The wind blew wildly! and I knew I was back on Hwy 5, and nearing the Bay. It was still cold at night, winter not quite over, though the wildflowers are prolific. Barely woke up on time for check out, and off up the road to brave the wilds of East Bay.

I was WAY too early to be standing around downtown Oakland (waiting for a Moody show) that was for sure. I took a detour, and spent part of the afternoon checking out Mission San Jose. If you didn’t know it, California was founded on a road called El Camino Real, that is Hwy 101 "the King’s Road" in Spanish colonial days. I’ve forgotten how many Franciscan missions there were in California (41?), but it’s something every California school-child learns in 4th grade (San Juan Capistrano is but one of many). So I try to stop and see them when I have time. Stephan and I must have seen this years ago, it was familiar, and seemed in much better shape than earlier, quite beautiful.

Then I broke out the map (even Californians use maps, you are just butt dumb if you travel big cities in CA without maps). On the map, a bit to the west of where I planned to get on BART (in Concord) I spotted "Home of John Muir" so that was where I headed. Yeah! Got there in time to see it, didn’t do the museum tour (I’m cheap). Took a few shots, bought a John Muir book bag. That was very cool. It was quite a maison actually, pretty nice digs for a dude who wandered around Yosemite as a bum! Hehe. I guess his speaking career must have been quite lucrative. And here all this time I thought he lived in a Rat Shack up in Yosemite somewhere.

I heard a lot of interesting travel plans to get to the Oakland show, on line. Bay Area traffic is horrible, and you stand a good chance of having a stripped car if you park in Oakland after dark (chortle that is if you can find a parking place!) I didn’t even NOT consider BART, it's fast efficient, fun (like the monorail at Disneyland!), and eco-friendly: you get off at the 19th street station in downtown Oakland, and walk two blocks. It's as safe as anything in life..... and much easier. So I parked in Concord, locked my car, and bought my tickets, and enjoyed the ride in. So easy so smooth. It was great.

My Dad used to work as county architect in Alameda, and was quite familiar with downtown Oakland (he inspected many buildings downtown after the big Quake, also licensed as a civil engineer) anyway he recommended a little place called Ratto’s, so I map quested it, and getting off BART a little early, walked to the "Ratto‘s District" which is a nice historical area to eat downtown, a bit like the Brady district in Tulsa. It was a hole in the wall, and very European! Been there over 100 years. It was an acceptable (though slightly scruffy) Greek deli. Bought some olive oil for the Old Man, and tucked it into my backpack, had late lunch of clam chowder.

Downtown Oakland was ok, in fact I felt much safer there than I did in downtown Santa Barbara. No street people here, or those who were, were stepping lively! (plenty of police). Whites are a minority here, a couple of old folks (White) were out creeping around, and seemed unconcerned. I felt very safe, as safe as one ever does in a downtown situation (Seattle is creepy downtown too, and San Francisco really IS scary, give me Oakland over San Francisco!) Anyone worried about downtown Oakland is probably harboring some lurking racism. It has cleaned up a LOT since I was there over 20 years ago.

I did pass one dude who happened to be Black, seemed a "bo" and was passed out flat on the sidewalk! He looked happy. A White dude was trying to revive him…… "sir sir, are you ok?" At that moment, everyone else on the street happened to be Black except me (and the heroic rescuer), and to the person, all of us were stepping around the guy. He was breathing well (and not having a fit), so I kept on going myself. In the Navy we encountered this all the time, people passed out drunk as lords. I figured, let him sleep until the fuzz get them, I’m pretty cruel, but there WERE a lot of cops downtown. And, I’ve heard of people like this whipping out knives and finishing you off too. I’m female, unescorted, and the guy wasn’t in danger. The situation was dodgy! Onward.